Person of Interest: Emilie Autumn

Autumn performing during a Fight Like A Girl Concert

Emilie Autumn was born in Los Angeles, California. She is a singer, world-class violinist, harpsichordist, novelist, poet, actress, and more.



Autumn during the Enchant era


Autumn's historical knowledge, singing abilities, and skills as a writer (of both prose and poetry) were all self taught. She is still a published poet and her novel, The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls, is cited in textbooks in Oxford University's psychology curriculum despite being removed from school at age ten, to perfect her skills as a child prodigy violinist.

Autumn originally  planned to become merely a classical composer and violinist, but then realized that her voice was necessary for her to truly express her art and views.

 

Autumn during her Opheliac album cover shoot.
All of her costumes are hand sewn by Autumn herself.

Autumn, being a sufferer of bipolar disorder, a vegan, and a feminist, is very outspoken about gender equality, mental health care reform, and animal rights in her music and writing. Autumn encourages women to "fight like a girl" and to be strong in times of trouble.

EA is now well versed in industrial rock as well as classical music- shown especially by her 2007 album Laced/Unlaced- a two disc instrumental album. Disc one- Laced- is all classical, whereas disc two - Unlaced- is all metal and industrial rock recordings on electric violin.

Below is her song "Manic Depression", which shows her skill as both a classical and rock artist with the violin.

 



Autumn's half-autobiographical, half-fiction novel The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls, based on Emilie's own diary while she was in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt, is currently in the production stage of becoming a Broadway musical.

Her fans - plague rats, as they're called - flock to her concerts with her signature heart painted on their cheeks to hear and see her elaborate and dramatic performances that could almost be called musical theater.

Alternative Fashion & Mental Health

Collaboration with Abbi!

With the slew of articles linking depression, self harm, and Goth fashion, one has to ask- why?

A study of 2,300 british teens conducted by Oxford University found that 15 year olds “who identified as a Goth were 27% more likely to have depression at 18 years” than their peers. This blew up the media- but the results were inconclusive. The research could not prove that goth is at fault for the mental health issues of teens, but many articles and concerned parents seemed to ignore the fact that the link between might be muddled- it could be peer contagion, or a preexisting disorder. "I was depressed and ill before I was a goth" Nattalie Richardson, 29, said in response to the idea that goth leads to depression and self harm.

 

The researchers did not specify that depression was causing kids to join the goth subculture, or if the goth subculture was causing their depression. The teens could be attracted to the goth community for a sense of solidarity and comfort, as “the Goth community is traditionally very accepting of marginalized individuals”. It could be that “youths who feel isolated from mainstream society are attracted to this particular group, and may indeed gain support and help through being part of this subculture,” Lucy Bowes, researcher for Oxford University said. "Teenagers who are susceptible to depression or with a tendency to self-harm may be attracted to the goth subculture which is known to embrace marginalized individuals," said Rebecca Pearson from the University of Bristol in Britain. Those who identified as goth had a family history of depression, have been bullied, or have behavioral and emotional problems already. There is no way to prove that if the individual would not have developed depression by 18 years old if they had not been a part of the goth community, but nonetheless, goth teens were three times more likely to be depressed than other, “normal” teens.



Still, researchers say that parents should not try to stop their children from being part of a goth group or being goth, because belonging to a group and having friends provides solidarity and comfort to depressed teens.

“Parents whose children identify with the Goth subculture need not be concerned,” Bowes said. “The majority of teenagers identifying as a Goth in our study were not depressed and did not self-harm.”

Is correlation causation? Should parents of young goths be concerned?